{"id":202463,"date":"2019-04-17T11:32:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T16:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toleranceweek.com\/?p=202463"},"modified":"2019-04-17T11:32:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T16:32:27","slug":"2019-tolerance-week-essay-contest-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/2019-tolerance-week-essay-contest-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Tolerance Week Essay Contest Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"
High School Winner Isabel Martinez, Bishop Heelan High School 9th Grade<\/strong><\/div>\n
I Am A Witness\"\"<\/a>
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s the point of being a hero when everyone thinks you\u2019re a villain?\u201d-Ellen Hopkins<\/div>\n
Who am I?
\nAm I a hero?
\nA villain?
\nA victim?
\nA witness?
\nI am a witness.
\nA witness of the world.
\nA witness of an era.
\nA witness of change.
\nI am a witness of veterans
\non the side of street corners,
\nbegging for subsistence
\nfrom those he once risked his life for.
\nI am a witness of survivors
\nof school shootings
\nbecoming victims
\nto their own minds.
\nI am a witness of religions
\nstill being persecuted
\nin social acceptance
\nand political actions
\nI am a witness of a wall
\ndividing people
\nmeant to be together.
\nYes, I am a witness
\nBut what have I done to invoke change?
\nWhat have you done to invoke change?
\nWhat has society done to invoke change?<\/div>\n
We are all witnesses
\nBut do we invoke change?
\nBeing a hero or a villain isn\u2019t black o white,
\nbut being a witness is.
\nTo be a witness who does nothing,
\nallows prejudice and pain,
\nis worse than the gray
\npainted between hero and villain.
\nI will become a witness to invoke change
\na witness who tries.
\nI may not be a hero,
\nbut I am a witness.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>Middle School Winner, Ulises Tapia-Sanchez, South Sioux City Middle School, Grade 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

I Am a Witness<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is a witness? A more appropriate question is \u201cwho is a witness\u201d? The answer to that is everyone–you, me, even the sun. We are all witnesses of a tragedy whose effects may not last forever, but the memories most definitely will. We owe it to those eleven million who died, the many more whose lives could never be the same, and to future generations to ensure that such an atrocity will never be forgotten and will never occur again.<\/p>\n

You are important to mankind. The very fact that you are aware of such a terrible time is crucial to preventing history from repeating itself. The witness is the historian, the student, the average Joe, and you. Everyone is important because everyone is witness.<\/p>\n

As witnesses, \u00a0it is up to us to speak up about what\u2019s wrong and fight for those who cannot. It is our duty to remember because if we don\u2019t , there won\u2019t \u00a0be any proof of this event after the last survivor has passed away. We must remember the past to shape our future because how can there be a future without a past? What kind of person acts in the present without planning for the future? And most importantly, how can the past not be recreated if it has been forgotten?<\/p>\n

We learn about the Holocaust in school, but we don\u2019t always stop to think about the true severity of the Holocaust. The sheer amount of deaths that cannot be forgotten, that must be respected, and that must be displayed to the world for the sake of the future of mankind must be respected.<\/p>\n

I am a witness. I will do my duty as a witness and remember the Holocaust. I will remember the lives lost, the lives destroyed, the families broken, and the children who had to live through it all and whose minds may never have had the chance to recover. I will remember the tragedy, and in doing so, I will be doing my part in not having to remember another one. I am a witness of the Holocaust. I will do my duty as a witness, and I hope that you will do yours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High School Winner Isabel Martinez, Bishop Heelan High School 9th Grade I Am A Witness \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of being a hero when everyone thinks you\u2019re a villain?\u201d-Ellen Hopkins Who am I? Am I a hero? A villain? A victim? A witness? I am a witness. A witness of the world. A witness of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toleranceweek.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}